Chairman Quits Great Northern

AP

Published: May 12, 1990

NORWALK, Conn., May 11—
The chairman of the Great Northern Nekoosa Corporation, William R. Laidig, who led the paper company's unsuccessful effort to fend off the Georgia-Pacific Corporation, left the company today with a lucrative severance package.

A company spokesman said

Mr. Laidig would qualify for a ''golden parachute'' package that would pay him three times his base salary plus his highest annual bonus of the last three years. The company's 1989 proxy statement listed Mr. Laidig's salary at $707,000 a year.

The board sweetened the severance package after Georgia-Pacific began a hostile takeover bid last fall. Great Northern's four-month effort to remain independent ended in February, when the company agreed to be acquired by Georgia-Pacific for $3.7 billion.

Mr. Laidig's departure comes about a month before the companies are expected to merge. In a letter to employees, Mr. Laidig said he had agreed to help during the transition and had done that to the point that was most productive, a Great Northern spokesman, Stephen M. Hill, said.

Mr. Laidig had served as chairman, chief executive and president of Great Northern since 1984.